Research progress of the natural small molecular products synergistically with antifungal agents to inhibit drug-resistant fungi

The incidence of systemic fungal infections have increased dramatically, moreover, drug resistance including either primary (intrinsic) or secondary (acquired) resistance, becomes one of the main reasons accounting for the failure of treating invasive fungal infections in the past decades. Nowadays, clinically available anti-fungal drugs are limited and their combination in antifungal therapy was not effective. It is expected to be a new strategy to synergistically sensitize antifungal drugs against drug-resistant fungi by using new small mole-cules. Based on the study in our research group and the reported work of others, we reviewed the research of the natural products which have synergistic effect with the antifungal agents against drug-resistant fungi. This review focused on the resource, structure, pharmacological activity, and action mechanism of the compounds, as well as somewhat in common, and would provide theoretical base for seeking new drug against drug-resistance fungi.